T&T: 62' Nordhavn Aground Near Mag Bay
Mike Maurice
24 27 36.45 N.
111 54 42.62 West
The boat is visible sitting on it's side just above the water. The PIN
location is about the center of the hull.
For those not familiar, this boat went aground about 2 years ago in a NW
blow, during the night.
I will post the news regarding this, that I have acquired from sources
in La Paz and around Baja, later.
Mike
_____________________________________
Capt. Mike Maurice
Beaverton Oregon(Near Portland)
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Mike Maurice
accident.
Keep this in mind. What follows is second hand, but may not be even
third hand, so I consider it to be relatively accurate. That said, it is
very likely that some details are not correct, that they may not
accurately reflect what happened that night.
The grounding occurred around April of 2006, about 1 1/2 years ago, at
night in a NW blow of about 35 knots. The boat was the Charlotte B.
There were 5 persons on board. Brian Saunders, Mark and Suzie
Saunders(no relation to Brian), Jim ??, and a second gal (name unknown).
Brian and Jim were US licensed masters. Mark may or may not have been
licensed. The boat was northbound, had passed Punta Tosca, Mark was at
the helm and passed the helm to Jim and Mark went to bed. About 1 hour
later the boat ran aground.
At some point in the hand over to Jim or but sometime before the
grounding(this is not clear), Mark mentioned that he thought they were
too close to the coast. This information was either ignored or
misunderstood, the character of this misunderstanding is unclear and may
be mis-characterized.
This next is very unclear, but the boat may have hit some outlying rocks
north of the present resting site. Damaged and out of control it
drifted back to where it is resting. Mark took a line, against orders
and went overboard in an attempt to take a line ashore. This effort
failed, he tried to re-board the boat near the stern, was knocked
unconscious and died before he could be hoisted aboard. The hoisting
aboard took nearly an hour in the rough conditions.
Brian was taken into custody by the Mexicans and jailed for some period
of time(perhaps a few days). Whether anyone else was jailed I have no info.
Mark's widow was left with a situation where all their mutual assets
were impounded. It is rumored that she has filed a lawsuit against
Brian, it is hard to be sure that this is accurate. But, the boat was a
US flag vessel, and all persons aboard were US citizens, which would
allow suits in US courts even if the accident occurred in Mexico.
What is not in dispute is that the boat went aground and one could draw
reasonable inference that the boat was in fact too close to the coast.
The charts for the area are marginal at best along the entire Mexican
coast inside of 60 or so of water.
Colin Cooper
Still its hard to believe that 2 licensed masters aboard a well equipped
boat like a Nordhavn (or the cosco busan for that matter) could get into
that much trouble, even in bad seas.
Where was the radar and gps?
The only thing that makes sense to me is that they had some combination of
catastrophic electrical and mechanical equipment failure, or they just
weren't paying attention.
I guess you just cant be too careful.
-C
Mike Maurice
which is the KMZ file for google to find the location, the KMZ is on my
web site.
Mike
Mike Maurice
not actually in the google earth pictures which were evidently taken
before the accident. I am attempting to match the ridge line with my
videos. I think the actual site lies about 1/4 mile south of the one I
previously posted.
Since the boat is not actually present on google earth it is making it
very difficult to locate the actual resting spot. Also it appears that
the Lat/Long that google earth shows is not quite right based on the
location from where my videos were shot. This is complicating the
identification of the location.
One of the ways I concluded that the patch of water is not the boat is
by using google earth's ruler, the patch of water is only 15 feet long.
Since the boat is 62' long it can't be.
It may take some more time over the weekend to pin the precise location
down, using clues from the hills and ridges just above the beach.
Regards,
Mike
_____________________________________
Capt. Mike Maurice
Beaverton Oregon(Near Portland)
Mike Maurice
present location of the stern of the Nordhavn.
The bow is pointing South.
I will post some video sometime this weekend, if I have time.
Mike Maurice
Mike Maurice
in "Find Places", exactly as below. This is about where the stern is.
24027'26.74"N, 111054'31.81"W
Mike Maurice
zero between the degree and minute numbers, the string below should
work, unless a zero gets put in again. If that happens be sure to remove
it and replace with a space. Use this in a Find in Google Earth.
24 27'26.74"N, 111 54'31.81"W
Sorry about all the hassle.
Georgs Kolesnikovs
at the Circumnavigator magazine blog:
http://circumnavigatormag.blogspot.com/2007/11/fubar_19.html
Bear in mind this accident is old news.
--Georgs
Mike Maurice
me to believe that the boat is sitting today within a few feet of where
it was when the Mexican Navy took the pictures used in the Lat 38 story.
I have received several emails containing more info on the accident. The
most important one is that the boat struck an UNCHARTED rock, became
disabled and drifted back to where it now rests.
If such an uncharted rock exists then there is a real danger to
navigation nearby the present wreck location and needs to be documented.
On Nov. 15, The 55' Pacific Escort traversed the danger area about 1/2
mile offshore from Mag Bay entrance, all the way to the present wreck
location. Alanui was about 1/2 mile further out and neither boat
encountered any unexpected rock. I was a witness to these 2 boats
approach to the wreck site.
Don't misunderstand, there may well be an uncharted rock. But, if it is
there, it is really hard to find, which makes it very dangerous.
Mike
_____________________________________
Capt. Mike Maurice
Beaverton Oregon(Near Portland)